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Post by hollygail on Aug 13, 2024 7:13:50 GMT -5
What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.
Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:
Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy
And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!
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Post by hollygail on Aug 13, 2024 7:24:35 GMT -5
Immediately following the sh'ma verse (Deuteronomy 6:4, Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai eloheinu Adonai echad, Listen, Israel [the people, not the geographical location], Adonai is our God, Adonai alone [or Adonai is One]) comes V'ahavta, et-Adonai elohehcha..., "You must love Adonai your God..." From Deuteronomy 6:5–9, this "paragraph" tells us we are to love God. Love doesn’t mean affection, either the kind between friends or between lovers. It means a deep, powerful connection that binds Jews to God through the mitzvot.
1. How can "loving" someone or something be commanded? Can love be commanded?
2. And what does it mean (or what has it meant) for you / in your life to love God?
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lee058
This space for rent
Posts: 23,213 
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Post by lee058 on Aug 13, 2024 8:43:14 GMT -5
Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.
Sorry I missed yesterday. I'm going through insurance hassles, and they are tiring me out.
Re today's topic: I think in this case, "love" means a combination of examination, appreciation, putting everything in proportion, and more.
Have a peaceful day, Lee
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Post by peachymom1 on Aug 13, 2024 10:05:06 GMT -5
The idea of loving God has always sounded odd to me, probably because God means something different to everybody, including people who say they don't believe in God (they can usually tell you what it is they don't believe about God). And it sounds weird to me when I hear someone say they love God, probably because I don't know that person's frame of reference.
I believe God is the Source of life, and I love my life. I believe God is the source of goodness, kindness, compassion, fairness, integrity, honor, and yes, love. I love all those things, and I try to live my life by those things. That's how I express that I love God. I don't think saying you love God means much, but showing you love God does.
Just my opinion.
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Post by gazelle18 on Aug 13, 2024 11:19:31 GMT -5
I too have long been uncomfortable with saying the words “I love God.” To me this “personifies” God too much. So, for me, the phrase “to love God,” means something more like devoting oneself to doing mitzvot, and generally living life in a way meant to enhance one’s relationship with God.
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Post by louise on Aug 13, 2024 15:32:04 GMT -5
I always felt that in the torah loving, fearing, and obeying God are all very closely related. Take god-fearing and god-loving - they are similar in effect except that I feel they come from a different place in us, a different relationship to God. How do we love something so beyond us? Yet we are called upon to do that with all of our being.
I chanted a couple of chapters of Eicha at services last night. Our rabbi put a new spin on the studying we did before services bringing in some post October 7 poetry. It was very moving.
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